Angela's Slide

Updated Sept. 14, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

When German Chancellor Gerhard Schr&ouml;der called snap elections last May, it seemed certain that he had paved the way for a conservative-liberal government. After all, his Red-Green coalition was trailing by 16 percentage points in the polls.

Fast forward to this week and suddenly all bets are off. The gap has narrowed to about seven points. That trend line is probably not steep enough to keep the Red-Greens in power. But if...